BOISE -- After more than a year of discussions with the community and parents at Highlands Elementary School about whether the Boise School District should rebuild or remodel the old building, the school district has officially decided to build a new school.
The announcement came Tuesday evening when the Boise School District sent out a release. It said the decision to tear down and rebuild the school, built in 1961, rather than restore and renovate was made after a lengthy and detailed analysis of the following factors: educational impact and safety; parent, staff and neighbor preference; budgetary constraints; at-large patron preference; preservation, environmental and outdoor opportunities and limitations.
Boise School District spokesman Dan Hollar told KTVB in early March that Highlands was rated as the second-worst elementary school during the 2016 facilities audit.
The public, including Preservation Idaho, Highlands Elementary staff, parents and neighbors, the City of Boise, ACHD and people from across the community, were very involved in the process. Boise School District surveyed more than 600 community members and they say 68 percent of Highlands parents, staff and neighbors supported building a new school, with 82 percent of parents surveyed supporting a new school.
The district says budget constraints were also an important factor because a remodel would have called for an extra 6,000 square feet to meet comparable educational and safety standards of a new school. The district says they found this would have pushed the costs "well above" what the Boise School District Board of Trustees and taxpayers approved during the March 2017 bond election, which is the funding source for this project.
"A new Highlands Elementary School is the best fit, educationally, economically and environmentally for our students and the school's parents, staff and neighbors," said Superintendent of Boise School District, Dr. Don Coberly, in the release sent out Tuesday. "With the needs of our primary constituencies now met, we look forward to designing a school that may incorporate many of the amenities requested by the public at large."
Boise School District will now enter the design phase of the new school, which will go through August of this year. Features suggested by remodel and preservation advocates and neighbors will be included as plans progress.